Join the London Drugs #GreenHeroes this Earth Day

Finding environmentally-friendly options for everything is at the forefront of our mind when we make decisions these days. Our children, and their children will be living in the world we leave behind so even small steps in the right direction are steps towards a better future.

London Drugs understands this and has become an industry leader with their implementation of a very impressive recycling program.

Taken from the London Drugs website:

In the last 5 years London Drugs diverted 170,000 lbs of Styrofoam from landfills – over 125 semi-trailer truckloads full – recycling it as a commodity to be reused in manufacturing.

In 2012, London Drugs collected and helped to recycle 32,711 kilograms of used alkaline batteries and 7,265 kilograms of rechargeable batteries and cell phones.

London Drugs will be performing Waste Audits on all of their stores over the next few years. Their goal is to increase their waste diversion to 95% by Dec 2015

We tried out their recycling program last week by purchasing products at London Drugs and then participated in the Bring Back the Pack program.

I visited our local London Drugs with my husband and preschooler to purchase some items we needed. I picked up some Cascades toilet paper (which is 100% recycled, so I’m happy that London Drugs carries this brand), and a cover for my ironing board. My husband picked a USB stick, and my daughter picked a Monsters University car with Mike.

London Drugs will take back all the packaging from any of their products for recycling, including hard and soft plastics, plastic wrap, cardboard, and even styrofoam. They may want to see proof of purchase when you bring it back (simply because they cannot accept unlimited quantities).

TIP: I found the easiest way to keep everything together was to keep the London Drugs bag my stuff came in, leave the receipt in the bag, and then put the packaging back into the bag when I opened each of the packages.

There are many other things that London Drugs accepts for recycling as well. I decided to bring back some old cassette tapes I still had lying around since my childhood (even though I have no means of playing them now). London Drugs will also accept VHS tapes, and other old recordable media, with the purchase of a similar type of recordable media product. We had purchased the USB stick which I thought was the modern equivalent, so my cassette tapes went in the bag too.

London Drugs also accepts expired medications to prevent them from ending up in landfills and then polluting the environment and water supply. I had some dating back to 2009 in the medicine cabinet, so I had quite a bag full of stuff to recycle. London Drugs will incinerate the expired medications and recycle the packaging free of charge.

I took my bag of recycling goodies to the Customer Service desk at London Drugs. That’s where they have the “Recycle and you could WIN” ballot box so you can enter right there when you bring in your recyclables. The attendant at Customer Service took all the packaging from my purchases, then directed me to the Electronics department to drop off my cassette tapes, and the Pharmacy department to drop off my expired medications.

When bringing back old VHS and cassette tapes, a London Drugs employee filled out a form that I signed, stating that I agreed to dispose of the media that may contain personal information. The Pharmacist took my expired medications with no questions asked and thanked me for bringing them in.

Overall, bringing back my recycling took a little less than 10 minutes (including time to snap some photos). It’s quick and painless and good for our earth – plus right now you can win free stuff! Doesn’t get much better than that!!

What’s the first thing you would bring back to London Drugs to recycle to enter the Giveaway and be a Green Hero?

London Drugs is trying to double their recycling efforts for Earth Month, so you can WIN a $250 gift card, or a GRAND PRIZE of a $1500 electronics pack by bringing back your recycling, or taking a selfie with things you recycle. Details about this promotion and a link to enter can be found at http://www.greendeal.ca/greenheroes.

Disclosure: A London Drugs gift card was provided to facilitate this post. Opinions are not influenced.

Judith is a mother to an angelic little girl, wife to a visual artist, sister to a breast cancer survivor, designer/ musician/ writer, and self-proclaimed ecoholic. Her blog juicygreenmom.ca offers tips on living green on a sensible budget, in Edmonton and online.